This textile is inspired by my leather bag. If the leather is examined closely, a beautiful diagonal pattern/ embossment? is apparent. To me, any sort of manipulation that shrinks a fabric screams this idea of luxury, as reducing a volume of fabric is costly in supplies and labor. Additionally, this manipulation provided the textile with an interesting property of stretchiness. The technique was an attempt at trying this technique. I’m actually not certain if i copied it, but I’m pleased with the manipulation nonetheless. Something about this quilting screams Chanel to me 24/7, so I tried to find a non-Chanel garment example and came up with this Jeremy Scott for Moschino jacket which I love!!!
This textile is inspired by my jade pen. Something about the luxury and the weight of the materials reminds me of the beauty of Moroccan architectural embellishments. I designed this pattern in Adobe Illustrator, played with the sizes and laser cut it. I discussed laser cutting textiles with laser lab technicians and fabric store employees and picked up a few interesting bits of knowledge. I would probably cite those individuals as my research “sources”. If I were to use this in a final piece, I would actually use the laser labs CNC router, which essentially does the same thing but with an automated blade, meaning the fabric wouldn’t be scorched in certain places. The pattern could also be improved by connecting the star tips in order to give the fabric a bit more structural integrity when pulled. Other than that, I am extremely thrilled about this manipulation.
This textile manipulation started as a geometric experiment based off the above manipulation. After embroidering the shapes, I used various subtractive processes to experiment with the idea of textile reduction. I would say this piece reminds me the most of my headphones. In addition to including lots of rounded shapes, as my headphones do, the shapes seem to be floating around on the “canvas”. This sense of floating reminds me of how I feel when listening to music, as if there is some sense of solitude created by the headphones. This sense leaves me alone with my music, floating in space. Of course this is not the actual case, but it is how the music makes me feel.
This wasn’t one of my textile manipulations, but an interesting little sewing machine mishap that I found rather beautiful. I could imagine this texture repeated on the surface of a garment would make for an interesting, beautiful, and delicate embellishment!
I would say my textile manipulations are on their way to representing my idea of beauty. Personally I find geometry, control, luxury, and excess very beautiful and I would say these manipulations reflect some of these ideas, though they could be refined.
For next week I plan on exploring some more of the techniques I found here. I might also like to try smocking, but I’m not sure how successful I would be with it. While I didn’t try pleats this week, I do like the way pleats cause a garment to move so I would like to try them for next week. This video could help with that.
